There’s a very simple consideration which can help us to formulate our attitude toward education, yet which is generally ignored:

“Will this knowledge or methodology increase or decrease our dependence on the enemies of Allah?”

The Prophet ﷺ did send some Muslims to ash-Sham to learn about weapons systems, but the capacity existed at that time to manufacture and operate these weapons systems with locally available materials.

The modern arms industry is itself a weapon. This kind of dynamic is not specific to modern weapons systems, but to most industrial production. Many companies will sell a piece of equipment like a car at a loss, knowing that they will earn a profit later by selling replacement parts.

Weapons contracts are used to incite competition between rival powers, forcing them into a perpetual cycle of trying to “one up” each other by purchasing new generations of weapons.

Arms purchases feed the research and development needed to keep the cycle going.

A helpful metric for gauging the extent of dependence generated by knowledge is specialization.

The larger a system becomes, the more specialized the functions of individuals within the system become.

Marksmanship, for example, is general to thousands of rifles.

The skills required to operate an S-400 or F-35, on the other hand, are to a large extent specific to that system. Training people to fill these roles takes a long time, meaning they get “locked in” to a relationship with the manufacturer of the weapon system.

A consumer analogue is the iPhone – the Apple ecosystem is deliberately designed to make it difficult to transition away from using Apple products.

Likewise, there’s a clear difference between NATO and former Soviet weapons systems.

Language of instruction, units of measurement, industrial standards, trade law, raw materials, capital controls and other factors define the character of industrial blocs.

Benefitting from an industrial bloc requires a deeper relationship than a simple trade relationship.

Because of the level of specialization required just to operate (let alone manufacture!) advanced equipment, inclusion in such a bloc requires deep political and cultural integration.

This is why Turkey is today the most advanced Muslim country in manufacturing weapons and also the most Westernized and least religious.

Smaller states often try to retain some degree of independence by playing off industrial/imperial blocs against each other, but in such cases the basic nature of their policies are always dictated by foreign interests.

Industrial/imperial blocs are like any structure – they have foundations, and their construction must begin with the foundation.

If you build a structure on someone else’s foundation, the structure will never truly belong to you.

The foundation in this analogy is territorial control and/or influence. This is why the liberal order was destined to defeat the Soviet bloc, and it’s the rationale behind China’s BRI project, and the aim of Turkey’s presence in Somalia.

An educational system is an essential component of an industrial bloc. Most of the educational systems built in Muslim countries over the last century are designed to interface with the liberal order and turn Muslim nations into permanent client states.

Education follows industry, and industry follows the power base. If an educational system is in place that was not built on native industry, it was built to serve an external power base. This is why you find so many graduates in Muslim countries leaving in search of jobs.

In other words, the education they received qualified them to work for other countries instead of their own. The skills and knowledge gained have limited utility in their home context, unless they relate to materials imported from the core of the industrial/imperial base.

A metaphor to help understand this:

You can get much higher much more quickly by renting an office in a tall building built by someone else than you can by building your own.

It is the craftsmen and not the university graduates who are key to building an Islamic economy.

Those who develop practical skills using locally available materials, and THEN condense this experience into theoretical knowledge are building structures which serve the ummah. They are more likely to be machinists or mothers than engineers or doctors.

The lure of easy money and prestige within the liberal order is there to pull us away from the path of building humble structures, but structures that we truly own, and that serve our interests, rather than the interests of our enemies.

This is why sharia and the sanctions that come with it should be embraced. This separation is protection more than punishment.

At the same time, building our own productive base requires expanding the power base, which requires jihad fi sabilillah.

It is possible to wage war against technologically and numerically superior enemies and win, but it requires very high tolerance for casualties, which requires faith.

The majority of the sahaba, radhi Allahu anhum, died in battle.

The number of shuhada offered by a society are a reflection of Allah’s favor upon that society, so it’s clear that the best generation was also the most blessed generation.

These sacrifices are also the source of the foundation on which productive systems are built.